Let’s take the great fashion icon Iris Apfel’s advice (yep, the one with the great hair and the super enormous specs):
We’ve got the accessories. The million looks is up to you!
Autumn 20 may be the season we look beyond the habitual dressing up and party clothes of this time of year and accept that life, as we are currently living it, may be more about easy daywear and home comforts and an everyday wardrobe which can be subtly reinvented for both going out and staying in. Accessories may be our very best friends at this time: a quick, fun and simple way of creating new looks. Anna dello Russo, the Italian fashion journalist, renowned for her flamboyant style, puts it like this:
Let’s take our liberal use of fashion’s vitamins from bottom to top. Read on.
Think of this as your foundation: something which can both ground and elevate your outfit. Taking our cue from the chunky wellies and exaggerated walking boots seen on the runway at Prada, Bottega Veneta and Dior, we have morphed the trend with the Shoe the Bear Chelsea and Hiking boots. Channelling a 70s feeling, get involved in the Bess pull on long boot. And there will always be room for trainers. We’re backing Karhu Fusion 2.0.
And if you need to accessorise your accessories, Bonne Maison are providing the most perfect socks for the season. With imagery drawn from nature (and a little mid century illustration, because why not?), a colour palette which captures the subtlety of AW20 and a new knee length style, these are going to be the hosiery of choice.
Gone are the days of the showy statement bag. This season is all about having a bit of fun without remortgaging the house for the privilege. And there are two key directions for Autumn’s arm candy: the Lady and the Mary Poppins. If you are keen to attempt the ladylike, Beck Sondergaard’s Moni bag in grenadine (really quite shouty) and Tapenade (very Faye Dunaway in The Thomas Crown Affair) or Ganni’s Top Handle bag will do a great job. If you are happier with a more capacious solution (Mary Poppins’ bag held an apron, a packet of hairpins, a bottle of scent, a small folding armchair, a packet of throat lozenges, a large bottle of dark red medicine, seven flannel nightgowns, one pair of boots, a set of dominoes, two bathing caps, one postcard album, one folding camp bedstead, blankets and an eiderdown), Hola, Jelena, Purna and Pilon (in strong seasonal textures of fake leopard, rough plaid, pieced satin and shiny coppery from Belgian favourites Bellerose are ideal.
Vogue identified Creature Comforts as a key trend for AW, in the form of wraps, blankets, stoles, and snuggly scarves to wrap yourself in. For the sophisticates amongst you, Epice (a Danish design studio based in Paris) offer the finest woven wool floral designs. Bellerose, true to their Americana inspired roots, favour simple plaids and super soft stripes.
Hairbands, hairgrips, clips and bobbles were all over the runway. Beck Sondergaard have interpreted the trend with the cutest little sets of embellishments in the jeweliest of colours for the season. Try Coraline if you’re dialling it down a touch, Macara if you’re vamping it up and Hurley if you can’t decide. If, like the inimitable, if slightly unwashed Julia Roberts “I enjoy hats. And when one has filthy hair, that is a good accessory”, try the Bellerose check Larya bucket hat, Ganni’s cotton poplin in their signature leopard print or Colourful Standard’s perfect beanie.
Back to the great Iris Apfel on accessories:
Time to get zinging and zesting and making your million looks. Shop our accessories edit here.
